Foreign Aid Benefits

The average American lives on $140 a day compared to 80% of the population of the world living on less than $10 a day (Alters). There is definitely a need for foreign aid. Even though some people think foreign aid is near useless because money given doesn't last long, letting people suffer is wrong, the price of not helping is way greater than the results of not helping, and all arguments are basically made void if people think about how helping is great if it even only makes one person’s life better.
First off, the moral obligation is to help. A good parable about people's moral obligation is as follows, “The way passes by a shallow pond… on my way, I notice a small child has fallen in and is in danger of drowning. Would anyone deny that
Wouldn't anyone want help in a bad situation? Peter Singer brings up an excellent set of points. First, ”If we can prevent something bad without sacrificing anything of significant importance, we ought to do it.” Second, ”Absolute poverty is bad.” Third, ”There is absolute poverty we can prevent without sacrificing anything of moral significance.” In conclusion, “We ought to prevent some absolute poverty”(345). It makes perfect sense that if it doesn't cost us more than it's helping, we should help people who are not as lucky as us. It says in the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” Being born into a life that
Rich countries are giving at most 2.1% of their gross national product compared to 8.5% spent on alcohol and tobacco (344). Even with the minimal donations, the percentage of the population living on less than $1.25 a day has gone down for all countries in the last 14 years, up to 60% in East and Asia Pacific (Alters). Of course, most of that is from just the world evolving, not the efforts of foreign aid, but foreign aid does help. Eight hundred million people live in absolute poverty (Singer 344). That is so many people that need help, that some people don't feel like it's even worth trying. There is a story from one of the leaders of my church about a man that walked down a beach covered with starfish that had been beached because of a storm. The man would chuck the starfish into the ocean, saving one at a time, but not enough to actually make a difference in the starfish population (Haight). But it doesn’t really matter, the world will never be perfect, at least you're helping or even saving a life. Imagine if that lie was yours. Just like the story with the kid in the pool, people might get a little muddy and wet, but that is very insignificant compared to the life of a child (Singer 344). It’s the same thing with rich nations helping poor ones. It might be a tiny bit uncomfortable, but not saving the child(or the people in need), would be wrong. Also, imagine the